I respected that boundary, but began to pray daily for an appropriate opportunity.

To my surprise, over the next few weeks, this man kept returning to the ship regularly to visit with me and we began to become friends.

Eventually, he started to spill out about his life — the conversation had moved from impersonal level about work and life to a more personal level.

One afternoon, his looked straight into my eyes and he asked me, “Tell me about your life.”

I replied, “I can’t really talk about my life without talking about God’s work in it, and the first day we met you asked me not to talk about God.”

His body language instantly communicated to me that he suddenly realized how I had respected his boundary from the first day we had met. Then just as quickly as he threw up the boundary, he gave me permission to talk with him God’s involvement in my life.

I began to share about my calling to ministry, how I became a Christian, and why I was willing to give all I had to help other people know and experience God’s love through Jesus Christ

The more I shared, it became clear to me that the Holy Spirit was at work in preparing this heart to start following Jesus.

As the conversation flowed naturally, it eventually led to me giving him an invitation to start following Jesus, just as I had done years before.

The Holy Spirit had worked on this man’s heart through our conversation and friendship that he invited Christ into his life that afternoon.

By respecting his boundary at the beginning, I earned the right to be heard when it was God’s timing to bring him salvation.

What I appreciate about my friend’s story is that he respected the person’s boundary.

Evangelism is not force feeding the gospel to someone who doesn’t want it.

Evangelism happens in cooperation between a spiritually thirsty person, the working of the Holy Spirit in that Kairos moment, and the cooperative evangelist who is praying and watching for those moments.